Romney won the Iowa straw poll -- no shocker since Rudy and McCain didn't bother showing up, and Romney spent a tidy sum on winning this contest. In the end, Romney will play it up to the hilt to gain momentum, but in reality it's fairly meaningless with regards to where the field will shake out over time.

Note that despite Rudy and McCain writing off Iowa, one would've thought that just their name recognition stood for something, enough to land them finishing better than their woeful showings of 8th and 10th respectively. I mean c'mon, 8th for that 9/11 hero, America's mayor? And McCain coming in one place short of dead last -- when does he finally give up?

Interesting tid-bit: 1500 votes were affected by "voting machine error," or nearly 11% of the total votes. If this were on a national scale, it would be front-page news in big type.